Documents: Routier planned burglary scam before murders

ANGELA K. BROWN

Published
7:00 pm CDT, Thursday, June 20, 2002

Associated Press Writer

Darlie Routier's husband discussed staging a home burglary insurance scam to pay off debt several months before two of the couple's sons were stabbed to death in their living room, according to affidavits.

Darin Routier recently admitted that he wanted to hire someone to break into their upscale Rowlett home in the spring of 1996 while the family was away, according to an account first reported in Texas Monthly's July issue.

He said he discussed it with his wife's stepfather and possibly others, including some reputed car thieves, but never pursued the plan and didn't tell authorities _ even after his wife was arrested, convicted and sent to death row.

Dallas attorney Stephen Cooper said he will use the information, which he learned about in 2000, when he files a writ of habeas corpus in July. He is seeking a new trial, claiming new evidence proves Darlie Routier is innocent.

"At trial the state hammered home: 'Why Darlie? Why this house?' This (information) certainly leads to a more distinctive possibility" of an intruder, Cooper said Friday.

Devon, a week before his seventh birthday, and 5-year-old Damon suffered multiple stab wounds in the June 6, 1996, attack. Darlie's neck, shoulder and arm were slashed; Darin and the couple's infant son Drake were upstairs and uninjured.

Dallas County prosecutor Toby Shook said he still believes Routier killed the boys because she was angry about money problems and the burdens of motherhood. Nothing was stolen from the home the night of the murders _ not even jewelry on the table.

"We disproved at trial that there was an intruder in the house that night," Shook said Friday. "This is just another attempt to get the case reversed."

Darin Routier, who did not return calls Friday to The Associated Press, has repeatedly said he believes his wife's account that an unknown intruder killed his sons and injured her. He also has denied any involvement.

Routier told The Associated Press last year that he would never stop trying to prove Darlie's innocence _ even though $250,000 in legal fees cost him the couple's car, boat and dream house.

Routier told the magazine that he never revealed his scam because he feared police might trump up charges against him, adding: "I don't want to help her at the expense of my life."

Darlie's stepfather, Robbie Gene Kee, told the magazine he discussed the burglary plan with Darin Routier, but he doesn't know why he never told police. Kee, who has signed an affidavit about his conversation, finally told his wife two years ago, and she immediately went to Cooper.

Private investigator Richard Reyna, hired by Cooper, has signed an affidavit saying Routier admitted to the fake home burglary plan. Reyna also told the magazine Routier said he had his car stolen a few years before the murders so he could collect an insurance settlement.

Cooper also plans to include in the writ a recent analysis of an unidentified bloody fingerprint, which does not match the boys, their parents, emergency workers or investigators.

At the 1997 trial, a state's witness said it appeared to be a child's but was too incomplete to try to be matched.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has not ruled on the direct appeal in the case. Cooper argued in March that the case should be tried again because of problems at the 1997 trial, including the transcript filled with 33,000 errors, and new evidence.

"If she were tried today, it would take a jury five minutes to find her not guilty," Cooper said.